1 Update on IDC's 'UK Development Assistance to Pakistan'
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Update on IDC’s ‘UK development assistance to Pakistan’ report recommendations Case for reform Recommendation 1: However critical our witnesses were of the failings of successive Pakistan governments to deliver development, all agreed that the UK should maintain a development assistance programme. We agree that DFID should have a bilateral programme in Pakistan which has an important strategic position in the world, strong ties with the UK and its stability and prosperity is currently in question. Agree. During their visit to Pakistan, the IDC heard that DFID is a trusted and valued partner able to operate at scale and make a positive impact on millions of people’s lives. Pakistan is the sixth most populous country in the world with an estimated population of 180 million. As many as one in three Pakistanis live on 30p a day or less. One in eleven children die before their fifth birthday. Levels of under nutrition are above emergency thresholds at 19%. Pakistan also faces an education emergency. Half of all adults, and two thirds of women, are illiterate and 12 million children are out of school. Entrenched poverty is denying opportunities to millions of people and undermining Pakistan’s long term stability and prosperity. Furthermore, population growth is high. By 2020 the population could exceed 205 million, with nearly 40% aged 10-29 years. With economic growth averaging only 3.5% over the past 5 years and the population increasing by 2% year on year, Pakistan is struggling to maintain living standards or to create jobs for millions of young people, leading to increased poverty and instability. A stable Pakistan can also help support security and development across the region. As NATO troops withdraw from Afghanistan in 2014, Pakistan will have a key role to play in regional stability. Helping Pakistan take advantage of opportunities for trade with India and the wider region will make a significant contribution to regional and global prosperity. On election day on 11 May, Pakistan made a crucial step in the transfer of power from one democratically elected Government to another for the first time in its history. This nascent democracy creates potential for positive change and real progress. But the development challenge is enormous and support is needed to help Pakistan get on track to stability and growth. Pakistan remains one of the UK's most important foreign, defence and development priorities. The UK has one of the largest Pakistani diasporas in the world (1 million people, 1.7% of the UK population), creating strong family and business links. A prosperous and stable Pakistan is in everyone’s interests. Update: Pakistan remains one of the UK government’s largest bilateral aid programmes. In 2013/14 the bilateral aid spend in Pakistan was £253 million. This is expected to increase to an estimated £310 million in 2014/15 subject to project performance and continued progress with key policy reforms, including on tax. Over the last year the new Government of Pakistan has prioritised, and taken action, to stabilise the economy through the IMF programme and agreed an ambitious structural reform plan including on taxation; secured trade preferences with Europe, 1 worth more than €250 million a year to the Pakistani economy; and shown resolve to tackle the security situation including through entering into negotiations with the Pakistani Taliban and the launch of a new national security policy. Within the region the Government of Pakistan has increased engagement and dialogue with Afghanistan and continues to be supportive of reconciliation. There has also been renewed engagement with India, including potential progress on granting India Non-Discriminatory Market Access after the Indian election. There are further encouraging signs with regional economic relationships particularly on energy connectivity and trade corridors throughout the region. It will be critical for Pakistan’s own internal stability, and the stability of the region, for the Government of Pakistan to continue to make progress on these priorities. Recommendation 2: It is for the Pakistan federal and provincial governments to shape reform programmes and institutions to improve public services and alleviate poverty. DFID has a role to play working alongside the federal and provincial governments. Agree. In the long term, only the GoP has the responsibility and reach to solve Pakistan’s problems and make significant, sustainable progress on tackling poverty. The UK Government works at both the federal and provincial level to catalyse and support GoP commitment to implement reforms that will create a stronger economy, deliver better services and strengthen governance. For example, on education the Constitutional guarantee to free and compulsory education for all 5-16 year olds is a bold new step. The UK Government’s sector support programmes in Punjab (with the World Bank and CIDA) and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (with AusAid) are supporting this through: reforming teachers’ pay and performance to improve the quality of education; improving budgeting and public financial management, so more funds are directed to areas most in need; decentralising management functions to the school level so that schools have more control over their budgets and issues like teacher numbers; and empowering school councils to make head teachers more accountable to parents. Combined with political leverage gained by the Roadmap approach - led by Sir Michael Barber, DFID’s Special Representative for Education in Pakistan – UK aid has helped increase student attendance by almost one million and led to an investment of around $2 billion (2012/13) from the Government of Punjab (GoPb). The Roadmap has also resulted in GoPb recruiting teachers on merit, rather than political and family patronage, having a direct impact on teacher quality. At the federal level, the UK Government, together with international partners including the IMF, has been engaging with the Caretaker Government and political parties to emphasise the need for tough decisions to be taken on tax reform when the next Government assumes power. DFID’s new Sub-National Governance programme will also have a strong focus on tax reform, supporting the establishment of provincial revenue authorities and improved revenue generation in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The UK Government engages with both the federal and provincial Governments on women’s empowerment, using the annual ‘International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women’ as an advocacy platform. DFID programmes work with local communities across Pakistan to provide support to and protect women from 2 honour killing, acid burning, domestic violence and other abuses. Other examples of DFID support include providing stipends to girls in some of the poorest districts in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to complete secondary education; supporting more women to vote in the national and provincial elections; and supporting the Acid Survivors Fund. Update: The UK Government is continuing to work at both the federal and provincial levels to encourage and support the Government of Pakistan to implement reforms that will create a stronger economy and make significant, sustainable progress on tackling poverty. Close cooperation between DFID and the Government of Punjab on the Education Road Map for Punjab has led to significant success. In the space of two years we have seen student attendance in the Punjab province increase from 83% to 92%. This means around 750,000 more children are attending school every day in Punjab. Over the same period teacher attendance has increased from 81% to 92%, which is equivalent to 34,000 more teachers attending school each day. The success of the Road Map approach in education has led the Government of Punjab to apply a similar model to improve delivery of health services. The Health Roadmap aims to improve basic primary healthcare provision across the province, including increasing immunisation coverage and reducing maternal and child deaths. At a federal level the Government of Pakistan has committed to continue and extend the national cash transfer programme. Through this programme, delivered in partnership with the UK, the Government of Pakistan is now reaching almost close to 5 million of the poorest and most vulnerable families with quarterly cash transfers, helping them to become more resilient to economic shocks and move out of extreme poverty. UK support for this programme has helped secure a significant increase in the funding committed by the Government of Pakistan, equivalent to £2 billion over the next four years. Furthermore, the government has committed to extend the programme’s coverage, increase the value of the quarterly payment, and provide an additional cash transfer for every primary school aged child that an eligible family sends to school. This education conditional cash transfer is currently being piloted and is due to be rolled out nationwide in September 2014. We have continued to build and strengthen our relationships with the Government of Pakistan at both a federal and a provincial level in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab. This has included annual aid talks between the UK and Pakistan which took place in October 2013 and the establishment of development partnership agreements at the provincial level in both Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP). These enable the federal and provincial governments and the UK to take stock of development progress and address any concerns on performance or issues which affect the partnership. For example, in KP the provincial Government has adopted a Strategic Development Partnership Framework, which sets out the shared and individual commitments both of the Government of KP and international donors, including the UK. This provides a clear, agreed, framework for delivery of assistance in line with the Government of KP’s priorities. In each priority area the framework sets out a clear set of time-bound indicators of progress to mutually hold to account both the donors and the Government of KP. A high level dialogue, led by the Chief Minister and Senior Cabinet Ministers, takes place approximately every three months to assess progress within the framework.